David Cameron will respond to mounting demands by MPs to recall Parliament to discuss Syria as Britain and international allies contemplate launching military action over the use of chemical weapons.

The Prime Minister has returned early to Downing Street from a family holiday to prepare for a national security council (NSC) meeting tomorrow which will discuss possible UK involvement in using force against the Assad regime.

America significantly toughened its rhetoric over what it described as the “undeniable” use of banned nerve agents by the Syrian government against an opposition-held suburb of the capital Damascus.

Blair calls for attack on Syria

Allowing the enduring controversy over the decision to invade Iraq in 2003 to hold back military intervention in Syria could help produce a “nightmare scenario” for the West in the Middle East, Tony Blair warned.

The ex-prime minister who took the decision for British troops to join the US-led action, who is now the Middle East peace envoy for the US, Russia, the EU and the United Nations, said it was vital to “take sides” against the Assad regime and in other regional disputes.

Drawing on his own experiences, Mr Blair wrote in The Times: “I know as one of the architects of policy after 9/11 the controversy, anguish and cost of the decisions taken.

Badger cull begins amid protests

The first pilot badger control operations have begun in west Gloucestershire and west Somerset, the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) said today.

In a letter to its members, NFU president Peter Kendall said the cull was “an important step not just for cattle farmers but for the whole farming industry”.

He wrote: “We cannot go on culling tens of thousands of cattle every year because of TB while knowing the disease exists in wildlife uncontrolled.

Search for crash copter black box

Investigators are continuing to search for the black box data recorder of a helicopter that plunged into the North Sea, killing four oil workers.

Salvage experts at the site of the crash have been using specialist sonar equipment to try to trace the device, which was located in the tail section of the aircraft.

It is hoped information on the flight recorder will help establish what caused the CHC-operated Super Puma AS332 L2 to ditch as it approached Sumburgh airport on the southern tip of Shetland on Friday evening.

Business chiefs slam HS2 ‘folly’

The Institute of Directors (IoD) has joined those calling for HS2 to be scrapped, branding the £50 billion high-speed rail project “a grand folly”.

A survey of IoD members found that just 27% feel HS2 represents good value for money, and 70% say the scheme will have no impact on the productivity of their business.

The survey also showed that there was little enthusiasm for the project even in the regions where the benefits are supposed to be strongest.

Tories accuse Miliband over unions

The Tories will accuse Ed Miliband of failing to tackle trade union influence over Labour and risking a return to the 1970s as they seek to exploit the Opposition leader’s difficult summer.

Education Secretary Michael Gove will lead the attack in a speech suggesting that Labour is “sinking back into their pre-Blair position of living in the unions’ shadow”.

Mr Miliband has pledged fundamental reform of the unions’ relationship with the party in the wake of the controversy over Unite’s involvement in candidate selection in Falkirk.

Hospitals ‘give own food top marks’

Patients in hospitals across the country are receiving Michelin-style dishes – or so hospital bosses think.

Three in five hospitals give themselves the highest possible rating for the standard of their food, figures show.

Out of 156 NHS hospital trusts in England 95 trusts rated the quality of the meals they served to patients as 5/5.

Oliver queries ‘modern-day poverty’

Most of the poorest families in Britain do not know how to feed themselves properly and choose expensive rather than cheap options, TV chef Jamie Oliver has said.

The star, 38, who has an estimated fortune of £150 million, said that he finds it “hard to talk about modern-day poverty”.

He cited a family he met while making one of his previous TV shows who ate unhealthy, fast food but had splashed out on a huge TV.

Peston concern over manufacturing

The BBC’s business editor Robert Peston has said it is concerning that the nation’s economic recovery appears to be based on shopping instead of manufacturing.

The broadcaster, 53, said that it was “a great relief that the British economy is at last showing signs of recovery”.

He told the Radio Times: “But it may be of some concern that the recovery is largely based on revived consumption and shopping, not on sales of goods and services to the rest of the world, or investment in important productive capacity.”

Boy, 3, dies in Spain pool tragedy

A three-year-old British boy died after he fell into a swimming pool in Spain during a family holiday, police said.

Relatives tried to save the youngster, named locally as Shae Colford, after they discovered him floating in the water at his grandparents’ home near Malaga.

But the child is said to have died in a car before he was driven to hospital near the Costa del Sol.